The present invention relates to computer programming, and deals more particularly with techniques for processing event notifications with an event sink, whereby event producers send event notifications to the event sink, which then routes those notifications to listeners.
Instant messaging (“IM”) systems are a popular communications mechanism for many people, and provide for instant, real-time communication between users who are connected to the IM system through an on-line or electronic networking environment such as the Internet, World Wide Web (hereinafter, “Web”), or corporate internal intranets. Examples of instant messaging systems include Yahoo!®, Messenger, AOL Instant MessengerSM, and IBM® Lotus® Sametime®. (“Yahoo!” is a registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both; “AOL Instant Messenger” is a service mark of America Online, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both; and “IBM”, “Lotus”, and “Sametime” are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.) An IM client of a person creating a message sends that message for rendering at an IM client of the message recipient; or, if more than two people are participating in an IM chat session, the message may be sent to the IM client of multiple message recipients.